We've all received them, and often, they're not so easy to understand. But when you get a medical bill you can't pay, there are simple steps you can take to make it more affordable.

At a time when medical costs keep rising -- higher deductibles, steep out of pocket costs -- paying those bills has never been so difficult. And understanding them -- well, not even health care professionals can always decipher their meaning.

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“I don’t understand my own sometimes,” said Reuben Murray, Lovelace’s chief financial officer. “There’s stuff on there I don’t know what it is.”

Your best ally in these cases is you.

First, keep everything, every bill, and write down who you talked to and when. It worked for Zack, a Rio Rancho father who's been on a long road to financial recovery after his son suffered a ruptured appendix.

“Kids in general are really good at racking up medical bills, they're young they play a lot, broken wrists, arms, things like that,” he said.

Zack has family health coverage through his wife's employer, but it wasn't enough.

"Even though insurance will cover a large percentage of it, sometimes the 20 or 30 percent they don't cover is enough to put your family in a situation that can be very intimidating,” Zack said.

Murray suggests doing your homework.

“It can’t hurt to shop around, and it can’t hurt to negotiate,” Murray said. “I think the thing people need to realize is, they have the right to have it explained to them, if they would like to know, ‘What is this test,’ or ‘What was this drug’ or ‘What was that for,’ we absolutely agree that you should understand your bill."

And hospitals and doctors often allow you to divide the payments into smaller monthly installments over a longer period of time. It's working for Zack.

“The key though is to stick to that payment plan, don't default on what you promised to do,” Zack said.

Murray said to ask for help -- you might be surprised.

“You might be surprised at the number of approaches we can take, to make the out of pocket affordable or at least a burden that you can bear,” Murray said.